The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1887-09-29

What cares he for right or decency or
the honor of his family name? Turned
out of employment, depleted in health,
cast down in spirits, the typhoid fever
strikes him in the smallest room on the
fourth story of fifth rate boarding
house, cursing God and calling for his
mother and fighting back demons from
his dying pillow, which is besweated and
torn to rags. He plunges out of this
world with the shrek of a destroyed
spirit. Alas for that kind of fun! 1t is
lemorse. It is despair. tits blackness of
darkness. 1t is woe unending and long
reverberating and crushing as though all
the mountains of all continents rolled on
him in one avalanche. My soul, stand
back from such fun. Young man, there
is no fun in shipwrecking your character,
no fun in disgracing your father name.
There is no fun in breaking your moth
er's heart. There is no fun i'll the ply
sical pangs Of the dissolute. There is no
fun in the profiigate's deathbed. There
is no fun in an undone eternity. Para
celsius, out OF the ashes Of burnt rose,
said he could recreate the rose, but he
failed III the alchemic undertaking, and
roseate life once burned down in sin can
never again be made to blossom.
Oh, this plumb line Of the everlasting
right! God viii throw it over all our
lives to show us our moral defiections.
God will throw it over all churches to
show whether they are doing useful
work, or are standing instances of idle
ness and pretense. He will throw that
plumb line over ali nations to demon
strate whether their laws are just or
cruel, their rulers good or bad, their am
bitions holy OF infamous. He threw that
plumb line over the Spanish monarchy of
other days, and what became of her?
Ask the splintered hulks of her over
thrown armada. He threw that plumb
line over French Imperialism, and what
was the result? Ask the ruins of the
Tuileries, and the fallen column of the
Place Vendome, and the grave trenches
of Sedan, and the blood of revolutions at
different times rolling through the Champs
Elysees. He threw that plumb line over
ancient Rome, and what became of the
realm of the Caesars? Ask her war
eagles, with beak dulled and wings bro
ken, flung helpless into the Tiber. He
threw it over the Assyrian empire of a
thousand years, the thrones of Semiramis,
and Sardanapalus, and Shalmaneser, of
twenty-seven victorious expeditions, the
cities of Phoenicia kneeling to the scepter,
and all the world blanched in the pres
ence. What became OF all the grandeur?
Ask the fallen palaces Of Khorsabad and
the corpses of her 1856, 600 soldiery slain
by the angel of the Lord in one night,
and the Assyrian sculptures of the world S
museums, all that now remains of that
| splendOr before which nations staggered
and crOuched. God is now throwing
| that plumb line over this American re-
! public, and it is a solemn time with this
nation, and whether we keep his Sab
! baths or dishonor them, whether right
e0usness Or iliquity dominate, whether
we are Christian or infdel, whether we
| fulfill our mission or refuse it, whether
we are for God or against him, We'll de-
eide whether we shall as nation go on
in higher and higher career or go down
in the same grave where Babylon and
Nineyeh, and Thebes, and Assyria are
sepulchered.
But" say you, ''if there be nothing
but plumb line, what can any of US do!
For there is an old proverb which truth
fully declares: If the best mans faults
We're written on his forehead it would
make him pull his hat over his eyes.
What shall We do, when, according to
Isaiah, God shall lay judgment to the
line and righteousness to the plummet? >
All, here is where the Gospel comes in
with Saviour S righteousness to make up
for our deficits. And while l see hanging
on the wall plumb line, l see also hang
ing there a cross. And while the one
condemns us the other saves us, if only
we will hold to it. And here and now
you may be set free with more glorious
liberty than Hampden or Sidney or d
Kosciusl1o ever fought for, Not out
yonder, Or down there, or up here, but
just where you are you may get it. The
invalid prOprietress of a wealthy estate in
Scotland visited the continent of Europe
to get rid of her maladies; and she went
to Baden Baden and tried those waters, ,anC
went to Carlsbad and tried those waters
and went to Homburg and tried those
waters, and instead Of getting better she
got worse, and in despair she said to {
physician: '.What shall dor" His reply
was: Medicine can do nothing for you
You have one chance in the waters of Pi
Keathly, Scotland" ''Is it possible?'
she replied. why, those waters are OF
my own estate!'' She returned and dranl
of the fountain, and in a few month
completely recovered, Oh, sick, anC
diseased, and SHINING, and dying hearer
why go trudging all the world over, ant
seeking here and there relief for your dis
couraged spirit, when close by, and a
your very feet, and at the door Of you
heart, aye, within the very estate of you
own consciousness, the healing waters o
eternal life may be had, and had thi
very hour, this very minute, this yer.
Sabbath? Blessed be God that over agains
the plumb line that Amos saw is the cross
through the emancipating power Of whicl
you and l may live and live forever